FATAL BEAR ATTACK IN ALASKAN PARK

(Anchorage, Alaska) Two people were killed in a bear attack on Monday in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. Timothy Treadwell, a 46-year-old self-styled bear expert, and Amie Huguenard, 37, were found when an Andrews Airways pilot arrived to pick them up and take them to Kodiak. Treadwell has studied and written about bears for the last thirteen years and considered them to be harmless.

The killings closely follow the near-fatal mauling of Roy Horn in Las Vegas by a Royal White tiger. Horn, part of the popular Siegfried and Roy show at the Mirage Resort, nearly lost his life when the tiger bit his neck and dragged him off the stage. He is currently hospitalized in critical condition.

Both these events occurred because people got too close to wild animals and failed to take adequate precautions. In the case of Treadwell, some considered that his actions bordered on reckless.

Over the years, Park Service officials, biologists and others expressed concern about his safety and the message he was sending.

"At best he's misguided," Deb Liggett, superintendent at Katmai and Lake Clark national parks, told the Anchorage Daily News in 2001. "At worst he's dangerous. If Timothy models unsafe behavior, that ultimately puts bears and other visitors at risk."

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Treadwell was known for his brazen confidence around bears. He often got so close he could touch them. He gave them names. Once he was filmed crawling along the ground singing as he approached a sow and two cubs.

Whether the actions are reckless or just high risk, they reflect an irreversible miscalculation regarding how wild man-eating animals react to humans in close proximity. Not surprisingly, they react like wild man-eating animals.

[Update 10/10/03 at 1445EDT] There has been some sorrow expressed for the poor bears that had to be killed in retrieving the human remains from the Treadwell camp. Just to make clear in the minds of those grieving folks what a bear looks like, the AnalogKid has posted a picture which should be required viewing. They are not cute innocent animals. They are huge man-eating predators. Have a look. [Hat tip to Random Nuclear Strikes.]